Jonathan sent me an absurd article from the Wall Street Journal. What is wrong with them lately anyway? This one is about how "partial-birth abortion" is horrible and what about the baby's right to life? First, let me point out that we don't have a fetal rights approach in this country. You know who does? Europe. And the Human Rights courts there. I'm not even getting into it right now since I'm going to be late. Anyway, apparently most Americans don't like this whole "partial-birth abortion" thing. (thanks for the link RJ) Think it's the framing? Or that it doesn't happen to them. I want t-shirts that read "Abortion should be legal in cases of rape, incest, and ME!" (Erin, you can take that project if you want)

Also a big piece of crap from the WSJ, a supposedly humorous article about how fetuses are better than babies, and ladies, just go through with the pregnancy because it's not that hard anyway. Anyway, WSJ: you suck lately. What happened to journalistic integrity. I wrote better essays when I was in high school.

I know it's been a long time since I last posted. Things have been crazy at work, and I have a little bit of a social life. I have a ton of articles I've been bookmarking to share with you. Hold on, it's a long one:

The 8th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that health insurance can NOT include prescriptive contraception. “Union Pacific’s health plans do not cover any contraception used by
women such as birth control, sponges, diaphragms, intrauterine devices
or tubal ligations or any contraception used by men such as condoms and
vasectomies,” the opinion said. “Therefore, the coverage provided to
women is not less favorable than that provided to men.”

In the "I didn't think this was news" section, we start off with the already-established fact that childhood obesity leads to early puberty. The only thing new about this study appears to be the young age at which obesity can affect development - as low as 3!

CNN wrote about rising STD rates, and a new way of dating online that involves requiring STD-free documentation. I got an email about one of those sites, CheckTonight.com To be a member of CheckTonight.com you have to get tested every 6 months; so what you do is before you start dating someone, you make sure they are on CheckTonight, or whatever website, so that you can be assured s/he is STD-free.

I know it's old, but I saw someone on the Metro reading a TIME Magazine article about the grassroots abortion wars. The article starts by discussing crisis pregnancy centers, and transitions to the approach in fighting this "war". I haven't gotten through the whole thing yet...

Metafilter pointed out that John McCain has flip flopped on abortion. If you're reading this site you probably know this, but overturning Roe would not make abortion illegal, it would allow states to make abortion illegal. So the question is, yes, about abortion, but it is also about states' rights, and how far fundamental freedoms expand.

A local school district (famous for the gum chewing incident as well as pulling an old video of putting a condom on a banana) is going to introduce a sex ed curriculum that may well include the fact that there are gay people. Next, we might learn sex just isn't for procreation! Speaking of WaPo stories, George alerted me to RedState's coverage of the "hook up" scene in Africa. (p.s. George points out that the author of the story is a noted plagarist - not sure that affects this piece, but it's good to know the source)Again, not getting into that whole Laura Sessions Step mess, but, RedState's take on it is that, um, it's not condoms that protect against AIDS, it's fidelity. Marital fidelity. I'm all for fidelity. AND condoms. And the Pill. And making good decisions.

Which is why I find myself actually not hating Fox's new "Pause" campaign. I thought I would, but it's all for talking with your partner about sexual decisions, and using condoms (and even says if you're too embarrassed to buy condoms then you should re-think your decision to have sex, which I just love) and to get tested for STDs. I don't, however, love the navigation. Whatever.

And lastly, before I go do work, a German couple is fighting incest laws - the brother and sister met when they were in their early 20s and fell in love. Brother-sister couples have a 50% chance of having a disabled baby. I'm not sure that's all that relevant anymore, considering the fact that people now engineer their babies to have "disabilities".

Bris (circumcision) gone wrong. On a baby with hepatitis. Again, I'm no doctor, but it appears that hepatitis is a blood disorder that affects clotting, and this type of thing has happened before? Feel free to correct me or expand on this.

Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), got her fire for politics in the early 1980s when she packed her tw young chilren in the care and drove to the state Capitol in Olympia to complain about the legislature's plan to discontinue a preschool program. While there, Murray recalls, one of the legislatorsdismissed her by saying: "You can't make a difference. You're just a mom in tennis shoes." (CQ Politics in America 2006).

On the good side, Grey's Anatomy had Christina, the driven intern accept the resident's proposal. She returns the engagement ring, saying she "doesn't do rings" and that they'll be wealthy, so they can hire a wife. Yay for work-life balance and figuring out what works for them.

In the meantime, Veronica Mars is pissing me off. First of all, the episode is titled "There's Got to be a Morning After Pill." A girl says she was pregnant and got "slipped her a morning after pill, causing her to have a miscarriage." I am going to live-blog this. Otherwise I would just call Lisa during commercials and complain.

B) The student said she got slipped RU-486, which is not the same thing.

C) You can't get SLIPPED Ru-486. While the FDA has approved the medication to be administered orally, it is usually administered buccally or vaginally.

D) While RU-486 induces miscarriage, it's also called an ABORTION (Lisa's point).

E) Why didn't the clinic disabuse her of that notion - the single administration/slipping it to someone thing? At least the clinic requires women to take the pill in the clinic. And protects patient confidentiality.

G) Does anyone else find it odd that there is a pregnancy test commercial on? Also, Nancy Drew shout out! Another pregnancy test commercial! But a different one. And two commercials with a song from the Hair soundtrack. I'd love to see the demographics on this show's viewers.

In the not-news department: it's gonna be hard to meet the Millenium Development Goals with the current birth rates in developing countries. That is one of the reasons that NGOs push for women to get educated - educated women in developing countries have fewer children, and those children are healthier. I did a paper on this earlier in the year, so maybe it just seems like old news to me?

A Romanian priest has introduced a sliding scale for non-virgins getting married in his church. The couple will have to pay more depending on how much of a non-virgin the woman is - if she's pregnant, they'll pay the full fine, if they have just moved in together, the fine will be a smaller amount.

Lastly, a "boot camp" for Ndebele women in South Africa trains them how to be "wives". They learn how to cook and clean and do laundry, but all as a form of initiation. (Edited b/c Andrea wanted me to make clear that the girls did not feel like the camp was punishment, although most outsiders would consider it to be so.)

There's a lot going on, including another recommendation that women consider themselves pre-pregnant, a bunch of abandoned babies, and the government's abstinence recommendations.

The U.S. government is promoting it's abstinence agenda to people up to 29 years old who are unmarried. Considering that up to 90% of people have people ages 20-29 have sex, the abstinence thing seems a little unrealistic. Tyler sent me a very funny article from a SFGate writer lampooning the effort.

It seems like it was abused baby week - babies were flushed down toilets, microwaved, and abandoned at a Long Island Railroad Station. Eric and I were talking about what the alternatives are, and how people could have gotten help. There are laws in most places that preclude prosecution for abandoning your chilld. New York, for example, has an Abandoned Infant Protection Act that allows a parent to leave her baby at a safe place - something undefined in the law. Germany has baby hatches, or baby boxes, which are safe places for people to leave their babies as a last resort.

So there's this whole push for prenatal care, which I am all for. And even care for women who are planning on becoming pregnant, which I think is fabulous. I was recently at a symposium on pregnancy, which I will post another day, but pre-pregnancy care is important. It's also unlikely, considering that that 50% of pregnancies in America are unplanned. If women don't always plan their pregnancies, it's gonna be pretty hard to start taking vitamins in anticipation of pregnancy, or stop smoking or whatever. Which means, then, that women should always consider themselves pre-pregnant (as should their doctors) which is kind of grossing me out (discussed earlier here & here). There's been a lot of commentary on it, including Saletan's round up on the pros & cons of the idea and Bean's opinions. Anyway, the point is that not only is that it's a little condescending and kind of gorss, but it's also absurd because it's not accessible - Medicaid doesn't cover it, and most GPs or OBGYNs don't give that kind of advice. Plus, the majority of the issues, like obesity, are problems that women should address anyway - it seems a little odd to tell women to lose weight ONLY for their fertility, not just for themselves, with their fertility as one of the many factors. Anyway, I'm waiting for our laws and policies to catch up with our health recommendations.

"What is going on here?""We're all protesting the sex ed class that's being taught to our children"..."..The school board has voted to cancel your sex ed class"..."...It's because you're teaching those kids about condoms""What? That's ridiculous, these students have a right to information about safe sex"These parents don't think so."

Part 2"Sure sex is fun, but you can't have it before you're married, even if you use a condom. Because not only do condoms fail 100% of the time, but they're majorly unsafe. Hey, you wouldn't put a plastic bag over your grandmother's head, would you? And that's why we're going to be handing out these opal rings. These rings are a symbol of your commitment to refrain from sex until you're married. Who wants to be joyful? Who wants to be pure? Who wants to be abstinent?"

"Dad, look at the facts about sex!""'If you have sex, your penis will fall off and land in another dimension populated entirely by dogs, who will eat it.' Well, that changes everything!"

"So remember, sex is bad, immoral and wrong. And, if you have sex, you're automatically in al-Queda""Kids, do not listen to this man. He is wrong. He is feeding you lies. Now look, it's true, you shouldn't have sex until you're ready. You should wait until you're in love. But I mean, hey, we're all human, huh? We all have urges, and they're perfectly natural. And if you do make the choice to act on them make sure you protect yourself. Use a condom."